Get it right first time with Cladding and Facades

Get it right first time with Cladding and Facades

Facades can be a key and expensive area of weakness when it comes to compliance in multi-storey buildings. Rather than discover issues with a building façade post construction, it is always best to be rigorous and get it right first time to save yourself work further down the line. For these reasons we have put together a short list of advice from Clive Everett, Facades Technical Standards Director at LABC Warranty, to help you get it right.

Some of the following may seem common sense but each is imperative to ensuring your cladding is performing correctly from the offset:

Keep the amount of contractors considered ‘specialist’ low to avoid complication.

Make sure that your contracts provide clear design responsibilities and scope with emphasis on interfaces.

When considering cost-cutting measures pre-production (e.g. less expensive product) ensure that you are also considering whether these measures could generate additional costs in the long term (e.g. requires more labour and more time to install); ensure you assess risk.

Hold regular design team meetings ensuring all specialist façade contractors attend. This should help you keep everyone on the same page and working towards the same goals.

Ensure the façade is managed by experienced façade package managers and façade consultants.

Ensure any unusual or untried interface details are assembled and tested off-site, long before they are due on site.

Ensure you have developed your robust Quality Assessment (QA) procedures before you start on site.

As soon as you start on site, construct quality/installation reference benchmark areas on the site which include examples of standard as well as non-standard details/arrangements.

Make sure you site test around 5% of all waterproofing details to confirm workmanship.

If you have any further questions on facades and cladding you can consult our Technical Manual or our Cladding Technical Memorandum